OSNews: http://www.osnews.com/story/8452/XFce_4_2-beta1_Released
Exploring the Future of Computingen-usCopyright 2001-2018, David Adamsadam+nospam@osnews.comTue, 20 Mar 2018 05:10:04 GMThttp://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gifOSNews.comhttp://www.osnews.com
Vowhttp://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?This screenshot is extraordinary. I use XFCE4 in my office and my only complaint is that its dock looked plain ugly and boring with a solid gray. Now it is transparent. Way to go.Sun, 03 Oct 2004 18:54:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)CommentsWOW!http://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?I have to aggre with the first poster here. The shot looks very good! Settings manager has a plenty of new features and wm theme looks so sweet. What to say, I am impressed, waiting for debs

It seems as though the vanilla 4.2 beta 1 package doesn't include the compositor. I'll pull it and compile it later, but can anyone confirm this or am I just reading what he said wrong?Sun, 03 Oct 2004 19:33:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)CommentsToo Early!http://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?This is a bad post:
- why link against a screenshot directly?
- which contains features that are not in the beta release?
- when the release has NOT been announced yet officially?

I am the xfce.org server maintainer and hope this will be fixed in the story. Otherwise I'll have to take the screenshot offile or move it.Sun, 03 Oct 2004 19:57:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)CommentsRE: Too Early!http://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?Oh, give me a break. Oliver himself emailed me about it after he entered the info at Gnomefiles.org.Sun, 03 Oct 2004 20:04:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)Commentssilly?http://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?i just saw a post from the server mainter complaining about these features not being implemented, and the link should be taken off ? why was it deleted ?

i think what he said was rightSun, 03 Oct 2004 20:08:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)CommentsApologies to Eugeniahttp://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?Sorry for making your life miserable ;^). The xfce-4.1.90 was not announced yet officially as this story went live. To take my own and other's confusion away I can confirm:

The screenshot linked is xfwm4 v4.1.90, and thus includes the compositor support displayed in it (transparent panel). The link in the xfce devblog is older, and in that version the compositor code had not been merged in it yet. You'll need to explicitly enable it when compiling xfwm4 though.

The official xfce4 4.1.90 announcement should be out within the hour now I think.Sun, 03 Oct 2004 20:25:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)Commentstransparent?http://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?Where is that transparent dock?
The screenshot i mean?Sun, 03 Oct 2004 20:28:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)CommentsRE: Apologies to Eugeniahttp://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?Thanks for clearing that up. Now excuse me while I go indulge myself in some xfce composite goodness =)Sun, 03 Oct 2004 20:40:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)CommentsIt's greathttp://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?XFCE 4.2 is great ! If you want to test drive it with minimal fuss check out Xfld ( http://www.xfld.org/Xfld/en/index.html ) , the 'xfce live demo' cdrom.Sun, 03 Oct 2004 20:48:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)Commentscompiled and running it nowhttp://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?feels snappy, but a bit less snappy with compositing. There should be an option in the settings to enable/disable it, instead of a compile-time option. I'm sure that'll come. didn't figure out how to make hte dock transparent except by using xorg's transset util.Sun, 03 Oct 2004 20:55:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)CommentsRE: compiled and running it nowhttp://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?Start xfwm4 with --disable-compositor to disable compositing even if xfwm4 was compiled with --enable-compositor.

HTH,
bennySun, 03 Oct 2004 21:24:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)CommentsYay!http://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?The file manager gets "functional double pane". I love Xfce4 but the first third party apps to go in are rox-filer and mc. I never could wrap my head around xffm, powerful though it appears. The tree-type GUI just isn't intuitive or efficient.Sun, 03 Oct 2004 21:39:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)CommentsOne major annoyancehttp://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?I am using Ubuntu linux, and I managed to install and run XFce 4.0.5 very easily on it. One problem is that the menus from GNOME are not imported at all, and I have to manually add them to the panel somehow... is there a way to do this automatically?

Cheers!Sun, 03 Oct 2004 21:43:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)CommentsRE: One major annoyancehttp://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?Xfce 4.2 includes support for the freedesktop.org menu-spec, therefore your gnome/kde menus will be merged in automagically.

bennySun, 03 Oct 2004 21:45:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)CommentsRE: RE: One major annoyancehttp://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?Thanks for the VERY quick reply! I will try 4.2 as soon as it is out of beta.Sun, 03 Oct 2004 21:48:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)Commentshm maybe I'm not the only one with this bughttp://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?Running xfce4-session in my .xinitrc, or using the long complicated xinitrc from the development webpage - can't start xfce with that. But if I run just a terminal and start xfce4-session from it everything runs fine. Anybody else get this, or shall I file a bug report?Mon, 04 Oct 2004 00:16:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)CommentsRe: hm maybe I'm not the only one with this bughttp://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?try inserting an & in the end of xfce4-session ath you .xinitrcMon, 04 Oct 2004 01:53:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)CommentsDual head support ???http://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?I would love to use "xfce4" but it just doesn't work with my dual head support. Xinemera support doesn't cut it.

When it supports dual head, I will use it.Mon, 04 Oct 2004 04:06:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)CommentsRE: Dual head support ???http://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?Well the first linked page does say "native multihead support"Mon, 04 Oct 2004 04:49:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)CommentsCoolhttp://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?I just installed Xfce 4.2-Beta1 and it is pretty neat, at least on the surface - haven't had time to play around too muchMon, 04 Oct 2004 05:55:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)CommentsWindow Panelhttp://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?I would love to see XFCE do away with the Window panel at the top and instead do it the way CDE does it, when you minimise the window it appears as an icon on the desktop.Mon, 04 Oct 2004 06:50:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)Commentsre: WindowPanelhttp://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?I have to disagree I hate having the mimimised icons on the desktop. You have to minimise everything to get to them. I was going to switch cde on our solaris boxes to xfce for that very reason. Though part of my problem is that we use TightVNC from our windows boxes to access them and ALT -TAB does not get sent with out having to click things in the VNC client.Mon, 04 Oct 2004 08:07:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)CommentsRE: Dual head support ???http://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?Xfce 4.2 fully supports multihead - both Xinerama and multi screen - configurations, you might want to give it a go.

bennyMon, 04 Oct 2004 08:20:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)CommentsFreedesktop supporthttp://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?This looks great. I remember trying to use Xfce 4.0 and I loved the speed, but I didn't like that I have to setup all my icons. I can hardly wait for this to come out

Excellent work by the Xfce team! Congrats and keep up the amazing work!Mon, 04 Oct 2004 16:04:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)Commentsminimize to iconshttp://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?isnt that what the "lil star iconbox" does? I'm pretty sure that minimizes it to icons sorta like WindowMaker does.Mon, 04 Oct 2004 16:09:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)Commentsone problem with xfdesktop:http://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?'"don't set background" option to allow apps such as xplanet to be displayed correctly'

ok, maybe with xplanet, but not with Rox-Filer. I want to have the XFCE right/middle-mouse-menu if I'm not in an icon area from Rox-Filer's icons.

Rox-Filer does have an option "pass all backdrop mouse clicks to window manager" and "override window manager control of the pinboard and panels" to have what I want: it works fine with IceWM or fluxbox or fvwm, because these WMs manages the middle/right mouse button.

But in XFCE, the xfdesktop program handle these mouse buttons.

So I hoped really, that this "don't set background" feature solves my "problem".

It's really useful to implement this feature:
if I'm over an icon from Rox-Filer, I want to do something with this icon, so I have a context menu from Rox.
If I want to do something in an empty areo, I want mostly start programs (eg. terminal...) so this is handled by XFCE/xfdesktop

Ok, one negative side: I can only change background image if I'm over an icon ;-)
But I don't change my background every day ;-) ... but I open some terminals often once a day.

So pleeeeease implement this feature in xfdesktop, so that xfdesktop behaves like IceWM & co w/ Rox-Filer!

Btw, really impressive release of XFCE!!! After the plugin with a taskbar in the panel, XFCE is the way to go with Rox-Filer for a small and fast Linux Desktop!!!!!Mon, 04 Oct 2004 17:38:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)CommentsRE: one problem with xfdesktop:http://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?Honestly, there's no good chance that this will ever be implemented, since both xfdesktop and ROX-Filer create a desktop window and only one such window can be displayed at a time. It would require some non-trivial event proxying to get this to work.

bennyMon, 04 Oct 2004 19:04:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)CommentsRE: RE: one problem with xfdesktop:http://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?> It would require some non-trivial event proxying to get this to work.

Sorry, I think it's easy and require some minor steps (which I can't program myself)

Please try following:

- Install XFCE 4.2beta, Rox 2.1.3
- start XFCE with xfdesktop disabled and Rox as DE enable
(Rox handles your icons on your desk)
- now open the options menu from Rox to have a "window" from rox, because:
- now start xfdesktop and your Rox Desktop is gone but not the opened options window from Rox
- do something in this Rox option Window and your Rox Desktop is back with Rox icons
- now start from a terminal "xfdesktop -menu" and voila:

*Rox is your desktop _and_ you see the xfdesktop menu*

So I think it's a easy task for the XFCE/xfdesktop developers not to draw the desktop but handles the middle/right mouse button, with can Rox pass to the windows manager (in this case to xfdesktop)

I think, XFCE+Rox should be more supported against for lightweight complete desktop!Mon, 04 Oct 2004 20:28:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)CommentsRE: RE: RE: one problem with xfdesktop:http://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?Well thats a really hacky work-around, not what I'd consider a solution after all. It'd even require us to change xfwm4, which is very unlikely to happen, as Olivier has a very strict policy about what will be added to xfwm4.

I do really like icons on my desk (but the nice context menu from xfdesktop too ;-)
Ok, a nice background w/o icons looks nicer, but if I look on my real desk, I can't imagine someone not allow me to place something on it.
Since Amiga days I placed everything on my desktop, so I think I can't imagine not to do it.

If xfdesktop/XFCE handles this completely I'm very pleased, but I read I must wait for 4.4?

Is there no hack around? It is ok for me/others(?) to link these icons to a very simple one liner (start programs, open folders with Rox...)Mon, 04 Oct 2004 21:08:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)Commentsproblems with eclipsehttp://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?Hi, installed the Beta but I am have problems running eclipse3.01 and ddd anyone had similar problems - other than that - I can't wait for a gold releaseMon, 04 Oct 2004 21:42:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)CommentsTaskbar, Panel in onehttp://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?HI I just installed this beta and think it brilliant.

1 Problem: I like the standard windows way with the taskbar and panel in one (as also done in fedora core 2 gnome), with menu buttons on left, taskbar in centre and date etc on right. Any way of doing this?

I am using XFCE4.2 Beta1 on Fedora core 3Test2.Mon, 04 Oct 2004 21:48:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)CommentsKeyboard Shortcutshttp://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?For me the only thing that's missing in XFce is a decente keyboard shortcut support.
I really don't like using the mouse that much, it's the lack of this feature that keeps me away from XFce Mon, 04 Oct 2004 23:58:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)CommentsRE: installerhttp://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?installer
what installer
is there an easy way to intall this
an rpm or something ?
also how do u run it in fc2 once u install it or add it to the session menu when u loginTue, 05 Oct 2004 01:33:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)CommentsInstallerhttp://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?Here's the installer!

Enjoy!Tue, 05 Oct 2004 13:58:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)Comments@nbz:http://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?yup, there's a plugin for the panel which lets you put a task manager in there. then you can edit xfce's startup and stop it launching the separate task manager.Tue, 05 Oct 2004 19:19:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)CommentsHow to use Installerhttp://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?Hi I used the rpms from http://www.gnomefiles.org/app.php?soft_id=468

To install xfce 4.2beta1. Now how do I use the installer to add the desktop plugin? Sorry I am pretty much a n00b.

What command do I use to run xfce4-taskbar-plugin-20040720-installer.bin ?Wed, 06 Oct 2004 21:44:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)CommentsManaged to install, buthttp://www.osnews.com/thread?
http://www.osnews.com/thread?I only installs for a single user, not all, even when run as root. (had to "bash *.bin" to run)

Next problem: I cannot seem to disable the current taskbar (I edited xinitrc in both /etc/xfce4 and /etc/xdg/xfce4), but it still starts. Also how do I add it to the panel? there seems to be no option. I have restarted several times to see if it changes anything whilst exploring possibilities.Wed, 06 Oct 2004 22:41:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous)Comments